Elevance Renewable Sciences, XiMo AG announce advancements in technology for metathesizing natural oils

15 April 2012

Elevance Renewable Sciences, Inc., a producer of high-performance renewable specialty chemicals, and XiMo AG, a company focused on the development and application of proprietary metathesis catalysts, announced significant progress in the development of new technology for metathesizing natural oils and derivatives using Molybdenum-based catalysts.

Elevance and XiMo began working together in January 2011 on Molybdenum-catalyzed metathesis of natural oil esters. Under the collaboration XiMo and Elevance researchers tested more than 40 catalysts using several natural oil feedstocks under various conditions to evaluate their efficiency. They have carried out successful demonstrations that make the Molybdenum-catalyzed metathesis of natural oil esters commercially competitive.

Elevance is pleased with our XiMo partnership and of our advancements achieved to date. The addition of XiMo’s catalysts to our existing portfolio of metathesis catalysts will expand Elevance’s capabilities, providing additional technology for our biorefineries

—K’Lynne Johnson, CEO of Elevance

Elevance Renewable Sciences, Inc. creates valued specialty chemicals from natural oils. Using a Nobel Prize-winning technology called olefin metathesis, the company creates high performance ingredients for use in personal care products, detergents, fuels, lubricants and other specialty chemicals markets. The company recently filed a patent application (20110237850) for methods of producing jet fuel from natural oil feedstocks through metathesis reactions.

XiMo AG is a Swiss-based company focused on the development and application of proprietary metathesis catalysts for use in the specialty chemical, agro chemical, renewables, pharmaceutical, flavors and fragrances, polymers and advanced materials sectors. The company’s molybdenum and tungsten catalysts are based on the research of founders Amir H. Hoveyda, Patricia and Joseph T. Vanderslice Millennium Professor of Chemistry at Boston College, and Richard R. Schrock, Frederick G. Keyes Professor of Chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, co-winner of the 2005 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.